1. History of the Invention
The present invention relates to arrangement for fastening together panels to form furniture arrangement including desks, work areas, partitions and the like, and to such arrangements in which mounting brackets may be fastened to one or more of the panels to acts as supports for still other panels or shelves in the furniture arrangement.
2. History of the Prior Art
A modern trend in the furnishing of offices is to replace conventional pieces of furniture such as individual desks, credenzas and the like with arrangements assembled from a plurality of panels. Such arrangements provide versatility of the type not always achievable with more conventional office furniture in that a particular working area may be custom designed to meet particular needs. For example, in a given situation where a desk or other working top is required together with a certain amount of storage shelf space within a limited amount of space, the use of panel arrangements permits the furniture dictated by such requirements to be custom designed simply by joining the panels together in a desired arrangement which may be limited only by the size of the panels, the number of panels available, and the locations and types of joints which can be made. Such panel arrangement have the further advantage of providing a large, flat area which not only serves as a back member or panel for the working and storage surfaces provided thereby but which also may serve as a wall or partition member.
Panel arrangements have become particularly useful in certain types of modern offices where space may be at a premium due to its cost, where the cost of construction walls to form individual offices may be prohibitive, or where it is desired to provide partitions of various heights, sizes and designs for aesthetic reasons. Moreover with a higher frequency of offices being rearranged, reorganized or moved to other locations or buildings, it is highly desirable to be able to quickly and cheaply assemble furniture and partitions to suit particular needs, and thereafter to be able to easily disassemble such arrangements and move them elsewhere where they may be assembled in the same or different form.
Presently known panel arrangements of the type used to construct office furniture, office partitions and similar structures suffer from deficiencies which limit the usefulness of such arrangements. One problem found in such arrangements is the difficulty often encountered in joining the individual panels to one another and, once joined, in thereafter easily separating the panels for rearrangement or relocation.
One type of panel joining arrangement shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,102, Albinson et al., makes use of flange elements secured to the tops and bottoms of adjoining panels. The top flange elements are of relatively complex construction so as to engage and secure the top portions of mounting brackets which are themselves limited to fixed heights and locations at the panel joints. The bottom flange elements require that panels to be joined be turned upside down or in any event placed so as to afford access to the panel bottoms, a technique which has proven to be cumbersome considering the relatively substantial weight of many such panels and particularly in arrangements where a number of the panels are to be assembled into a particular complex. A somewhat similar arrangement which minimizes some of the problems of this type of joining arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,257, Beavers. The Beavers arrangement which employs top and bottom junction plates having slots which are engaged by locking elements are themselves seated within specially configured grooves in the panel tops and bottoms, thereby providing some convenience and efficiency in the joinder of the panels at the expense of a joinder arrangement which is relatively complex in other respects and particularly requires panels of custom design and construction.
The joining arrangement shown in the Beavers patent is typical of many prior art joining arrangements which provide for a relatively strong and substantial joint which in many cases is relatively easily provided and without the need for an elaborate array of specialized tools, but almost always at the expense of requiring parts of relatively complex and custom design which are often difficult and quite expensive to manufacture and which limit the technique to the use of panels properly equipped with an elaborate arrangement of special parts or fasteners so as to make them usable in the joining arrangement. Such arrangements are shown, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. RE27,215, Propst, et al., where a central channel has openings for receiving elements fixed and protruding from the edges of the panels, a top member adjusting the height of the central channel relative to the panels to vary the wedging action of the elements within the channel openings, by U.S. Pat. No. 3,694,975, Pollock, where a slotted spline which receives mounting brackets is provided with slots to receive fingers extending from one or both panels as well as fingers for engagement in slots in the panel ends, by U.S. Pat. No. 1,208,568, Kane, where panels are joined through a common member by apertured protrusions from one end which extend through the common member and the other end and receive pegs therein, by U.S. Pat. No. 3,492,766, Andrew, where an apertured spline adapted to have brackets mounted thereon is engaged by tabs extending from special structures at the panel ends so as to engage and properly vertically position the panels relative to the spline, by U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,978, Fenwick, U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,419, Marks, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,796,158, Miles, et al., each of which shows a joining arrangement employing a common member of unique and complex design.
In contrast U.S. Pat. No. 3,174,592, Berman, et al., shows a joining arrangement employing a slotted central member which is of simple, standard design and which is capable of mounting brackets for supporting shelves and the like. However, the joining arrangements in Berman et al. are used with very thin panels in the nature of sheets of uniform, single ply construction, and at that require special brackets mounted on the edges of the sheets for engagement with the common members.
Further problems of the prior art reside in the absence of finishing members such as top caps on the panels to provide the panels with a neat and finished appearance by serving in part to conceal some of the elements used to join the panels together. Still other arrangements employ such finishing members but fail to attach them to the panels in an easy and convenient way which facilitates ready removal of such members for disassembly or rearrangement of the panels.
Many of the panel joining arrangements shown in the previously referred to prior art patents as well as other prior art patents make use of a slotted central or other member for mounting brackets of the type useful in supporting shelves and the like. The brackets themselves typically include a plurality of finger-like projections for engagement in the slots. Further examples of mounting brackets of this type are provided by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,358,956; 256,672; 1,983,470; 2,681,786; 2,956,766; 3,322,288; 3,353,684; 3,511,193; 3,570,798; 3,713,257 and 3,730,477.
Many of the prior art mounting bracket arrangements have various shortcomings, particularly in terms of being able to mount the bracket so that it is secure and resistant to inadvertent loosening and removal while at the same time being easily removed or installed when it is desired to do so. The above-identified patent to Thornton, U.S. Pat. No. 3,358,956, is typical of those patents which attempt to impart some stability to the mounting bracket by providing it with a projecting tab or other protruding element in combination with one or more finger or hook elements. In this type of arrangement the projecting tab typically is received in one of the slots so as to reside against the bottom edge thereof to provide vertical and some lateral support and stability for the bracket. Such arrangements do not, however, act to prevent inadvertent upward movement or release of the bracket. Still other arrangements which provide some resistance to unwanted upward movement or release of the bracket are illustrated by the above referred to Knape U.S. Pat. No. 1,983,470. In the Knape patent each mounting bracket is provided with a pair of hook members and a pair of projections. The projections which are considerably smaller than the hook members reside within and completely occupy slots of special size and spacing from the main slots accommodating the hook members, thereby requiring use of a slotted member having slots of nonuniform size and spacing. Moreover, the particular design in Knape is such that the hook members once installed in their slots do not cooperate with the projections in providing a close, snug fit of the type which discourages unwanted looseness or inadvertent release of the mounting bracket.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a panel joining arrangement of relatively simple design which makes use of standard, commercially available parts for use as the common spacing member as well as other portion of the joinder arrangement and which greatly facilitates the joinder of panels in the place and position where they are to be used without the need for turning the panels upside down or otherwise arranging them merely for purposes of effecting joinder of the panels. It would furthermore be advantageous to provide a panel joining arrangement permitting and providing for the use of finishing members such as top caps which are easily installed on as well as removed from the panels while at the same time providing a finished appearance and comprising a permanent looking part of the panels when installed. It would still furthermore be desirable to provide a panel joining arrangement in which mounting brackets can be mounted on a standard member having slots of uniform size and spacing so as to lock the mounting brackets in place against unwanted looseness or removal while at the same time permitting relatively easy loosening and removal of the mounting brackets when it is desired to do so.